Heartshield 01
by she-who-waits-behind-the-wall
Summary: Mari Tanaka starts the story as Habashira's girlfriend a quarterback for Harijaku Private Academy under the alias of Blaze. When Rui discovers, he breaks up with her and Hiruma finds out and gets her expelled from her school.HirumaXOCHabashiraXOC complete
1. Prologue: Mari Tanaka

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**Disclaimer: I only own Mari and Youske**

**Remember - all of the chapters are told by a different character.**

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Heartshield 01

Prologue - Told by Mari

Living alone in Tokyo could be scary. There were so many people around, so many cars, so many taxis, so many trains. I didn't care if I was one of the most feared people in the Harijaku school district, or that I was seventeen years old, or we had a decent security system. I was scared shitless. Yes, I, tough as nails Mari Tanaka had a fear of being alone. Each time the wind blew, I jumped. If Loki made the floor creak, or even meowed, I'd scream.

I didn't technically live alone though. My parents were just away a lot. Dad decided mom was psycho and went back to live in America where, according to him, "Things aren't so formal. People are more laid back!". So, he made me go with him. That's what got me introduced to Football.

When I returned Japan, I learned that Harijaku had a football team. I joined, under the alias of Blaze. I wore red tinted goggles and the helmet covered most of my face. Only the football team knew my real identity, and made me their trainer, captain, and quarterback. I lead this team to victories, and we even won a scrimmage against the Deimon Devil Bats, who were finally a pretty good team.

Tomorrow, we would have a scrimmage against Zokugaku…the school in which my current boyfriend Rui Habashira attended. He was a lineman, and a very violent one at that. Rui still didn't know my secret, and I planned on keeping it that way.. When he asked me if I'd go to the game, I told him I wouldn't because it would be too awkward. The Zokugaku Chameleons were a ruthless bunch of gang members who would punch, kick, and crush their way to victory. Rui was the only member with a love for football, I could see it in his eyes whenever we'd watch American games together. But, he was blind sighted by winning, becoming the best that he could be. He'd just brutally destroy the people who stood in his way…especially Seijuro Shin of the Ojo White Knights. Shin had to be one of the best linemen to play in Japan, being able to run the human limit and use his special move called "The Spear Tackle" in which he would stretch his arm farther than he should be able to, and take on down just with one hand. He had a ridiculously nice body and big muscles. I'd never seen anyone so strong or so fast.

I was suddenly snapped out of my thoughts as the clock struck midnight. It was then that I grabbed my cat Loki and crawled into bed to be ready bright and early for our scrimmage against Zokugaku.

XxX

Rui lead his team onto our field. Sure, they looked scarier than us, and Rui had the ability to break anyone's spirit, but I was our team's advantage. I was entirely incapable of being afraid of Rui on the field, and my bravery convinced my team not to let him break their will as well. Rui met me in the middle of the field, and let out one of his meaner laughs. "Today is the day you'll be extinguished, Blaze, along with your other Fireballs."

I deepened my voice and laughed. "We'll see about that, Habashira. I'm not afraid of you." "We'll see how much that changes by half-time."

My first play seemed so easy. I threw the ball way out to the wide receiver who had some pretty hardcore catching skills and he began to back up, passing it to the running back, who outran Rui and scored a touch down. Using that same play, we managed to get two more touchdowns. Now, Rui was pissed. He pretty much annihilated my wide receiver. Somehow, they managed to score four touchdowns on us because now, my receiver had broken his will. And now, they were working on my running back. So, I devised a screen pass. When we scored, Rui swore loudly. That was when the eyes of an athlete just turned into the eyes of an animal.

"It's the damn quarterback. He's good." I heard someone from the Zokugaku team say.

"Then we're just going to have to take him down. Leave that to me. I feel like he's laughing at us." Rui growled.

That's when things went wrong. When I didn't even have the ball, Rui tackled me, actually knocking me back so hard that he ripped up turf. When we managed to stand up, we were in each others faces. I shoved him back, and that set him off. He ripped his helmet off and pulled me up by my jersey. "Oh, it's on." I growled. I was ready to pull off my helmet, but my defensive lineman and best friend, Youske Suzuki, broke up the fight and pulled me away.

"This isn't the time for this, _Blaze_." He whispered. We both knew I would immediately get questioned and unmasked if I kept this up. That's when everyone suggested we forfeit the game before anyone started questioning anymore, but I refused. We were ahead, and we were going to win no matter what.

"I'm going to end you." Rui hissed, walking away.

It's safe to say he was pissed when we won, 58-44.

When he came to my place that night, it was apparent he was _still _mad, but he tried to hide it. "How was the game?" I asked as I brought a big red bowl of popcorn out to him as he watched something on T.V.

"They won." He hissed. "If I ever find out who this Blaze is, I'll kill him." I sat a decent distance away from him, considering I had some pretty nasty bruises on my ribs and back. Throughout the game, Rui tried to throw me around like a rag doll. I was just so sore. "Well, I'm sure you'll do better next game." "You bet, baby." He pulled me into a tight hug and it took everything I was made of to keep me from yelping in pain.

"I'll be right back, I have to pee." I zoomed towards the bathroom and took my shirt off. Most of my torso was purple. Maybe I should have gotten that checked out. I let out a breathy sigh and turned to my side. More bruises. "Oh, Rui." I whispered. At least he didn't damage my face or anything. I stared in the mirror at myself for a good few more minutes. When I walked back out into the living room, Rui had Loki curled in a little black ball on his lap. I kissed the top of Rui's slicked back hair and curled up carefully on the couch next to him making sure not to hurt myself too much.

We ended up falling asleep like that. It wasn't unusual having Rui stay the night at my place though. He hated going home, and he stayed at my place as often as he could. His home situation wasn't exactly the greatest, but neither was mine. But I guess it was pretty nice that my dad lived all the way in America and I lived with my mom here, even though she was never home.

We woke up around the same time. Rui looked down at me and kissed the top of my head. "Good morning. I can't move."

"Me neither." I rested my head on his chest.

"I say we attempt to go back into the bedroom, stretch out, see where it goes from there."

So, we slinked back into my bedroom and sprawled out on the bed. The silk sheets felt great against my skin as I gripped them in my fingers and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't feel like doing anything today." I sighed.

Rui stood up and peeled off his clothes from the previous day and fell back onto my bed in his chameleon printed boxers. I rolled out of bed and just stripped down to my tank-top and panties. I laid back down and buried my face in the crook off Rui's neck. We ended up falling asleep again and not waking up until three. I woke up first, sneaking off to take a bath while he cutely slept. He loved to hold things in his sleep. May it be a teddy bear, a pillow, me.

I took my things and settled myself into the nice steamy bath and closed my eyes. After washing my hair I draped the wet washcloth over my eyes and rested my head against the lip of the tub. I had fallen asleep again until Rui knocked on the door. "Come in." I said, sinking farther in the tub. I heard the sound of him pissing in the toilet, then washing his hands.

"Man, I've never felt so tired in my life." He said.

I pulled the washcloth off of my face and squinted to see him through the steam. There were bruises all over his wonderfully sculpted body. He sat on the lip of the tub and rested a large hand on my head before bringing it down to cup my face. "I feel so lazy today." I sighed.

"Me too." He pulled my forward in a quick kiss before standing up and leaving. "I'm going to go make us something to eat."

When he left, I finished washing my body and cleaning up the tub. The rough towel hurt as I dried myself. I had forgotten about my ribs and back. In case Rui came back, I quickly threw the nightgown over my head before anything else.

The smell of whatever Rui had decided to cook wafted through the kitchen. It smelled American. He was one of the few people who knew that I didn't like Japanese cuisine that much. I preferred American food. I kept things like that stocked in my refrigerator. At first, Rui hated it, claiming that it was disgusting and greasy. I told him that his food was considered disgusting in America. Eventually, he'd gotten used to it for my sake. I had been born in Japan and lived here with both my mom and dad until they split up, so my dad went back to his country and took me with him since my mother was always too busy to take care of me. Then when I hit middle school, they sent me here because the education was top notch. My father had prepped me by teaching me Japanese, making Japanese cuisine at least three times a week, and teaching me different cultures and customs. So, the transition wasn't entirely horrible. I'd even spent summers in Tokyo with my grandparents and having my mom stop in and see me whenever she could.

I finished blow drying my hair and brushing my teeth before I poked my head out the door. I could hear something boiling and I could smell a meat mixture and cabbage. It smelled great. I smiled at Rui and leaned against the door. "You can go ahead and get cleaned up. I'll make sure this gets finished."

Rui slinked off to the bathroom and I climbed up on the counter to reach a box of consommé to add into the mixture. By the time I finished the long boiling process of the stuffed , Rui came out of the bathroom with his hair perfectly in tact and wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of gray plaid boxers. He kissed my cheek and we fixed our plates and sat curled up in front of the television.


	2. 1: Blaze: Rui Habashira

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**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters other than Youske and Mari**

**Remember - Each chapter is told by a different character.**

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**Heartshield 01**

Chapter 1 - Blaze: Told by Rui

Behind every great warrior, there's a weakness. I only have one. Her name is Mari Tanaka and I'd be lost without her. I remember the first time I met her. We were both fifteen. She wasn't anything compared to what she is now. She sat alone in the park with a sketchbook on her lap, staring blankly at the trees and twirling a piece of hair with a pencil. She was definitely American. Her strawberry blonde hair was wavy and hung down way past her shoulders, her green eyes hid behind black plastic frames, and she wore a green sweater, a blue skirt, high white socks, and brown high heeled boots.

"You lost, little girl?" I asked, stepping in her view. "This is my park after the street lights come on, kid."

"Really? Little girl? Kid? I bet you anything we're probably the same age." She said in rather impressive Japanese…for an American. "And I was getting ready to leave anyway. You can have your park." She stood up and began to walk away. I stretched out my arm, grabbed her, and pulled her back.

"I never said I was going to let you leave easy." I smirked.

"If you want to play this game, I'll play it." She wound her fist back and punched me hard in the nose. It was a rather strong hit, too. My hand flew up to my nose, and I could tell it wasn't broken.

"You might want to watch yourself, Ginger. You messed with the wrong guy." I lifted her off the ground and waited to drain off of the fear in her eyes. But there was no fear, just a bored expression. "You know what? I'll let you go. Don't let me see you here after dark again. Understand?" I set her down.

She shrugged and walked away.

I seen her again a month later in the park, but this time she looked completely different. Her hair was purple and tied up in a wild ponytail, her glasses were gone, and she wore a black t-shirt and a pair of tight jeans with high black boots. This time, she wasn't drawing, but writing in a composition book. I don't know how I knew it was her, but I did.

"I thought I told you to stay away from here, Ginger?" I said as a I stepped in front of her. She looked up at me, rolled her eyes, and looked back down. I pulled her face up by her chin and sighed.

"Can I help you?" She shut her book and never looked away from my eyes.

"I thought we had an understanding."

"It's a public place. I don't care what kind of stupid gang you're in, Habashira."

"Wait, how do you know my name?" I stared her down.

"I just happen to know things." She swatted my hand away from her face and stood up. Something about the way her face contorted made me go from completely hating her, to falling in love with her in an instant.

"You know what? I think we got off on the wrong foot." I put my arm around her and smirked. "Since you already seem to know my name, why don't you tell me yours?"

"Mari Tanaka." She said stiffly.

We hung out together for a month before we finally got together, and it's been three years since then.

Now, I had this lovely angel meeting me at the park when she got out of school for the day. Zokugaku got out a little bit earlier than Harijaku, and I always had time to sit at the park as she walked with Youske, a guy I didn't like too much but had become Mari's best friend. He was a pretty big guy, about 6"3 and three times Mari's side. He was on the football team, the defensive lineman. He had broken up the almost all out brawl between myself and Blaze.

Oh, how I hated Blaze the mystery quarterback of the Harijaku Fireballs. He was a cocky, arrogant bastard. He could be a guy in Mari's life, a guy who maybe flirted with her in one of her classes, or winked at her from the field while she waited for Youske to finish practice.

"Hey, Rui!" I heard Mari call. There she stood in her school uniform. A black skirt, red blazer, white undershirt with a black bow, red knee socks, and black flats. Harijaku was a rather elite school, which was good for Mari because she had to be the smartest girl I'd ever met, even if she was half American. She stood on tiptoe to kiss me and waved at Youske.

"See you later, Mari. Oh, by the way. Blaze thought you looked cute today." He smirked and continued to walk.

Hearing those words made me angry. I tightened my grip on Mari and she pulled back. "Damn! What's your problem?" She put her hands over her arms and glared up at me.

"Sorry. It's just…stay away from Blaze." I sat back on my motorcycle and she got on behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"I can't make any promises." She said.

I turned back to her, suddenly angry at her. "What to mean _you can't make any promises_?"

She shot me a dirty look. She got off the back of my motorcycle and started to walk away. "Call me when you're done being an asshole."

"What's your problem?" I called. "You sneaking around with Blaze or something?"

"God Rui, you're so juvenile! So what if he's a great football player? Oh, and you want to know why I can't make any promises?" She narrowed her eyes even more. "_No one knows who Blaze is!_"

I smacked myself in the forehead. Of course, I was unnecessarily upsetting Mari and when she got like this, there was no going back. She ran to catch up with Youske, who immediately asked her what was wrong, when she told him he laughed and she shoved him into the side of a building. I'd just do what I always did, stop at her house with some roses, cook her dinner, and she'd be good as new.

And I did just that at about seven. I had the key to her apartment and when I opened the door, it was empty. I peeked back in her bedroom where I found her sitting at her vanity holding a towel against her body and talking on the phone. "I'm surprised I'm not puking up blood yet." She laughed into the phone. "But, damn. I can't believe you had to say that out loud. _Blaze thought I looked cute today? _He better think I look cute every day, I mean, if you think about it, he dresses me, doesn't he?"

What? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

She snorted, and proceeded to laugh. "No, I'll never tell him. Do you know how much he hates Blaze? And how would I go about that? _Yo, Rui. Wanna know something? You know Blaze, the quarterback you hate so much? Yep, that's me. You got your ass handed to you by a girl_. He has pride problems. Well, I better go in case Rui decides to come over." She hung up the phone and turned, and when she saw me, her heart jumped out of her chest. "Oh, shit. When did you get here?"

I had no clue what to say. I stared at her, unable to comprehend the information flying at me. I spent the whole Harijaku game trying to _kill _Blaze. There was no way Mari could be Blaze. But then, I thought about how tense she was Friday night, and how sore she looked Saturday. She even tried to fight be back, knowing it was me out on the field.

She bit her lip. "So, I guess my secret's out of the bag?" She stood up and took a step towards me. I wanted to step back, shove her away, but I couldn't move. "I didn't tell you for your own good. I didn't want to you take it easy on us if we ever played you, and I didn't want you to say anything to anyone. If the school board knew I was on the team, they'd kick me off immediately."

"I can't believe it. You're Blaze?" I stood frozen as she held up her towel with one hand and my hand in the other. "You've been lying to me for almost two years."

"Well, not really. You never stopped to ask "Hey, are you Blaze?" or anything like that." She chuckled nervously.

"Mari…I don't think I can be around you right now." I looked down at her.

"I understand." She looked away and tears rolled down her eyes. She turned completely away from me and clenched her fists. I tossed her house key onto her bed, and began to leave. I knew she didn't want me to say around and watch her cry.

"I'm sorry, Mari…but you're not at all who I thought you were. I can't be with a girl who thinks she has to keep secrets from me." I said before walking away from her for what could be the last time. But, I didn't want that daily after school peck to be the last kiss I'd possibly ever share with her.

"Rui, this can't be good-bye." She said called through the cracks of her voice. I heard the sound of her throwing on various articles of clothing before running to meet me back outside. There she stood in one of my t-shirts and a pair of shorts. We stood under the streetlight. "I won't play football anymore, I'll never keep another secret from you." She said, pulling on the sleeve of my jacket.

"Mari, please." I looked around. "We both have reputations to keep up."

"I don't care if everyone thinks I'm as tough as nails, that I don't have a heart. I love you! I love you and you love me too. You can't just throw that away because there's something about me you don't want. I won't be Blaze anymore. I'll resign tomorrow."

"Don't do that." I said, trying not to look at the tears falling from her eyes. I pulled her into a tight hug and let her cry into my chest. I looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone around. "You'll find another guy who loves you, Quarterback and all. I just can't handle this all right now, Mari. I'm not good enough for you to begin with. You go to one of the best High schools in Japan, you're this big talented artist, you play football. These past three years have been great."

"No, our three year anniversary is in two days." She pulled away from me and watched as I walked over to my motorcycle and sped away. "Fuck you, Rui Habashira!" She called after me. "Come get your shit tomorrow."

Sure, she was angry now, but things would soon get better for her. They usually did. She'd realize I wasn't the best option, or find all the flaws that made me a horrible person and she'd be grateful that I let her go. I loved Mari, and I always probably would, but it was unsettling knowing your girlfriend was probably one of the most feared quarterbacks in Japan.

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	3. 2: Deal with the Devil: Mari

**((Author's note: In the previous chapter there is a section that said Rui met Mari when they were both 15. That is a typo, they actually met when they were 14, but I'm too lazy to go and change that.))**

**Disclaimer: I only own Youske and Mari**

**Remember: Each chapter is told by a different character**

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**Heartshield 01**

**Chapter 2 - Deal with the Devil**

**Mari**

When I walked home after school I found Rui perched on his motorcycle outside of my apartment twirling his keys around on his finger. "How was school?" He asked, as if this whole conversation was the same one we've had every day for the last three years.

"I didn't think it was going to end." I gave a nervous laugh and unlocked the door, inviting him in. He immediately sat down on the couch and leaned back. This was how every day was. He looked around my empty, lonely apartment. Every photograph that had been up of us had been taken down. The walls looked much like a melancholy portrait of how much Rui had taken of my life. He was my family, my best friend, my lover.

"Are you going to be alright here by yourself so much?" He asked, his voice almost shaking. Of course he knew how afraid I was of being alone, but it couldn't be helped.

"Youske is going to be around a lot more often." I said as I walked back to my bedroom. I went to change out of my uniform before realizing something. I walked back out to where Rui sat on the couch as calm as he could allow himself to be. "We have a problem." I announced, watching him get scared from the unknown.

"Y-yeah?" He asked, crackling his knuckles. It was a habit he had when he was nervous about something.

"I haven't had to buy new shirts in three years. The clothes in my closet are all yours." I slung a black bag over my shoulder and kicked my toe into the hardwood floor. "So, to pay me back for letting you live with me rent free, You're going to take me shopping."

"What?" His first instinct was to get angry, but when he realized that I was right, he stood up and shrugged. "Fair is fair." He held the door for me, locked my apartment back up and we mounted his bike. As I wrapped my arms around his waist, smelling his cologne and feeling his rock hard abdomen, all the feelings I had tried to hide came flooding back. How was I to live without this? Rui was the only person who had stayed a consistency in my life, and now he wasn't going to be there anymore.

When he pulled in front of the department store, I was sad to let him go. When we began to walk side by side down the parking lot, our first instinct was to grab each other's hand. When we caught ourselves with our fingers intertwined, we looked at each other and pulled away. "Sorry, force of habit." I whispered. "This is going to be hard, getting used to life without you."

"I know. When I woke up this morning, I found myself reaching to the side of the bed to hold you, but you weren't there." He admitted, his cheeks turning a bit red.

"I walked out to the kitchen half expecting you to be there stupidly trying to cook bacon with your shirt off and swearing when you got hit with grease." I tried to hold back laughter and tears all at the same time.

"When I rode to school, my waist felt cold. I'm so used to having you there."

"God, I'm gonna miss you, Ru." I blurted out. I immediately regained my composure and walked into the department store. "Let's not stand around and reminisce. We'll get in, get out, and go on like life was before we were together. I just want to forget." Too bad I couldn't even remember what life was like before Rui.

"We'll never forget. And I definitely don't want to." He turned to a rack of clothes. "Are you ever planning on dying your hair back?" He asked suddenly.

"Maybe. Why?"

"You always looked good in green with your red hair." He picked up a green off the shoulder, loose t-shirt that tightened where my waist started and then flowed out.

"Aw, would you look at this? Fucking Chameleon and his fucking Snake." A voice hissed into my ear. We both jumped only to see Yoichi Hiruma, Satan himself. "Oh, a Harijaku girl? I'm looking forward to the Deimon and Harijaku game this weekend. I don't care how good Blaze is. He doesn't stand a chance against Eyeshield 21."

"Oh yeah?" Rui surprisingly became enraged. "Blaze is the best quarterback the Kanto region has ever seen. He's done surprisingly well for himself, despite working with a team of mediocre idiots. He made them decent enough to beat Zokugaku, Taiyo, they even almost beat Seibu."

"Only because Tetsuma ate too much at half time." I added, remembering that intense game. "Seibu is lost without Tetsuma."

"You know an awful lot about football, for a prep school girl." Hiruma crossed his arms and stared down at me. "Then again, you're not just _any _prep girl, are you?" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit a few buttons before my phone began to go berserk in my pocket. I had received a picture message from an unknown number. A picture of me without my helmet just as I was about to head into the locker room. "If the Japanese School Board knew about this, you'd be expelled from Harijaku immediately." He laughed and snapped his phone shut. "I want to make a deal with you, prep girl. Actually, a more fitting word to describe this would be a wager."

"Alright." I said, knowing fully well after I said those words, I'd made a deal and sold my soul to the devil. "Bring it."

"If Harijaku loses to Deimon by under ten points, Blaze has to resign silently. But if they lose to Deimon by ten or more points, Blaze has to reveal himself on the field, and face expulsion."

"And if Deimon loses to Harijaku by under ten points, you have to resign from the Devil Bats. And if you lose to Harijaku by more than ten points…" I slowly smiled a mischievous smile and glanced up at Hiruma. "You have to give us Eyeshield."

These stakes were too high. There was no way Hiruma would take them. I knew he wanted to go to the Christmas Bowl no matter what it took, which wouldn't be possible if he had to resign from the team or give up Eyeshield. "You know how to make a deal." Hiruma said, before reaching out and shaking my hand. He turned away from me in an instant.

"I-I-I didn't think he'd take it!" I stammered.

"You just made a deal with the devil himself." Rui put a hand on my shoulder and shook his head. "You better pray that you beat them, or your football career is over."

"I know." I watched as Hiruma walked away, crackling and feeling completely satisfied with himself. "I have two days to get those boys into the best shape they've ever been in. I better start looking for a new high school now." I let my eyes fall to the tiled flooring of the department store. "We don't have anyone even close enough to Eyeshield's speed."

"But you have one of the strongest lines in the Kanto Region, and the rest of your team is pretty amazing too. The only thing that isn't up to par is the running back, but he's still pretty fast." Rui placed a strong hand on my shoulder. "You can do this."

"Yeah." I felt a large pit in my stomach. There was no easy way to break this to the team that their career in football could be over if they couldn't find a good enough quarterback to replace me.

XxX

"Youske." I whispered into the phone. "Don't hate me." I looked around my bedroom, quite satisfied with how much it seemed more like my place than Rui's now.

"I-I don't hate you, Mari." The anger that had been in his voice when I first called was drained now. "I just can't believe you'd do something so _stupid_!"

I tucked the house phone between my shoulder and ear and headed out to the laundry closet to take the last of my uniforms out of the dryer and fold them neatly. "What did you want me to do? Turn away from him? He somehow figured out who I was, so if I turned away he would have definitely ruined me." I sighed as my phone began to vibrate off the top of the dryer, making an annoying, shaking noise. It was a call from Hiruma. "Look, I'll call you back. Someone else is calling me, and I better take it." I hung up that phone and answered my buzzing cell phone.

"Prep girl, what are you doing right now?" He asked, not even bothering with a simple greeting.

"Laundry. Because unlike you, I don't have little demon minions to do it for me." I said, shutting the laundry room door. "What do you want, Hiruma?"

"Come outside."

"Oh, God. You don't know where I live, do you?" I groaned, peeking out the living room curtains. Sure enough, he stood just outside the gates under the streetlight with his phone in one hand, and an assault rifle in the other. "You look like a terrorist."

He peeked up at me and smiled that devilish grin. "You look like fucking Barney. Purple isn't a good color for you."

"I'll be down in a minute." I rolled my eyes and tossed on a pair of jeans before jogging down three floors and out to where Hiruma stood. "Whatever you want, make it quick. I have work to do."

"I wanted to add more to the wager." He said, looking down at me. "You in?" "As if I have a choice." I sighed, eyeing his gun. Sure, I always kept a magnum on my person, but if it came to a quick draw, Hiruma's assault rifle would brutally destroy me.

"If you lose by more than ten points, not only must you reveal you're Blaze and face expulsion, you'll have to come to Deimon and work as a my personal slave." He smiled broadly, loving the look of pure horror on my face.

"You have Rui for that." I said, wrinkling my nose. "What do you need me for?"

He narrowed his emerald eyes and pointed his gun at me. "Accept or Decline. I have other house calls to make."

"Accept." I said in a voice barely above a whisper. "But if you get to add on more to the wager, so do I. Not only do we get Eyeshield, but you have to give us your wide receiver." There was no way Hiruma could chance losing both of his trump cards. He relied on them too much to get his passes through. But, he shook my hand again and walked away, leaving me breathless and not sure what I have just done under the starless sky.

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	4. 3: Jaded: Youske Suzuki

_**Heartshield 01**_

_**Chapter 3 - Jaded**_

_**Youske**_

The first time I met Mari Tanaka was the summer where we were both ten years old. Her father had flown her in from America to stay with her mother, a co-worker of my father's. Doctor Tanaka, newly divorced, walked in with a little girl in her shadow. The little girl kept her long red hair in pigtails and her nose was dotted with little freckles. She wore a green t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and she clutched a football under her arm.

Doctor Tanaka looked at my father and adjusted her glasses before speaking, as she always did. "Doctor Suzuki, why don't you have your little Youske come over and meet my daughter Mari?"

After receiving a demanding look from my father, I slid down off the chair I was sitting in and made my way over to the rather vicious looking little girl. "Hi, I'm Youske Suzuki."

She reached out and shook my hand, smiling a cat-fanged smile. "Mari Tanaka." "Is that really an American football?" I caught myself asking her.

"Yeah, it is. My dad is a football coach in Houston. He used to be a pro. Do you play?" We began to walk out the door and to the hospital courtyard.

"Yeah, with some kids at school."

She stopped and poked my stomach once before squeezing my left arm. "You're a lineman, aren't you? Because if you're not, you should be. You've got the right build."

And from that moment on, Mari Tanaka became my best friend. When she left to go back to America in the fall and I had to resume school, she called me frequently and wrote letters. Most of our letters were composed of different plays to try. We promised each other that we would start our own football team where I could be on the line, and she would be a quarterback. After graduating an American elementary school, she started school in Japan, and I formed the Harijaku middle school football team, the Harijaku Fireballs. We got our name from the color of Mari's flaming red hair, which she dyed purple her third year here. Me starting this team was my "welcome home" present to her. I made sure she was quarterback and she wore a orange tinted eye shield and took the alias of Inferno, which later became Blaze in high school. If the school board found out a girl was playing football, they'd expel her immediately.

"Youske!" Mari growled, my thoughts being interrupted by her cat-like eyes glaring into mine. "How about a little less sleeping and a lot more football?"

"Sorry, Mari." I grinned sheepishly before standing up and looking out at the field at everyone else working hard. As I began to walk towards them, I felt Mari's fingers loop around my wrist.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

"Stuff." I said, slipping away and jogging back out the field. I started practicing with the rest of the line, but couldn't get into it like them. I felt so worried for Mari, possibly getting expelled from school and the football team that was created just for her. I knew if we wanted to grind Deimon onto the ground, I'd need to motivate myself a little more, but I just couldn't do it.

"What's going on with you, Suzuki?" A teammate from the line asked. I didn't bother to answer, because I didn't know myself what to do.

XxX

On Friday, the day of our game against Deimon, our team felt like we had been put through a Death March. Mari had worked us to the bone in the past two days that everyone was scared shitless of losing. If Mari was upset, bad things happened. As we stood in the huddle, her scary aura felt kind of bruising. "You guys know we have to win this or I won't be able to help you anymore, right?" Her eyes scanned around the huddle. "Sure, you all probably hate me after what I just made you do, but it was to make you stronger. It'll be difficult to find a quarterback like me if I go."

"Even if this is our last game together, you were probably the best trainer, coach, quarterback, manager we could ask for." I said, smiling at her. "But, this isn't our last game together, so let's send those damn devil bats off with their tails between their legs! Burn! Smoulder! Boil! Scorch!"

"Burn! Smoulder! Boil! Scorch!" The rest of the team called out. We set off onto the field and I matched myself with Deimon's biggest lineman, Ryokan Kurita. We matched in height, but what he had in fat, I had in muscle. Sure, muscle wasn't everything, but I had the determination and willpower to back it up. The way I seen things was that on the field, I was a knight and Mari was a princess. I had to protect the princess from getting sacked by someone twice her size.

"Set, hut, hut!" Mari called as I passed the ball back to her. She wound her arm back for her torpedo pass, a pass no one but our receiver had ever been able to catch. It was very similar to the NASA Alien's shuttle pass. Once that pass was underway, all was over. So, Hiruma was more than likely to devise a blitz. But before anyone could react, the torpedo was off and our receiver caught it, scoring a touchdown instantly. Mari had never been sacked, ever. We never allowed it.

Hiruma looked ready to call another blitz. A four man blitz judging by the concentration locked on Mari's face. She wound her arm back and imitated Seibu's Quickdraw Kid style, shooting the ball off like a gun. To her dismay and surprise, Deimon's wide receiver launched himself from the ground and caught the ball, passing to Eyeshield 21. Mari was fast, being able to run the 40 meter dash in under 5 seconds, but there was no way in hell she could catch Eyeshield, until the gleam in her eye told me otherwise. She had discovered his fatal flaw. When he stopped to change his pace, she charged him, knocking the ball out of his hand and catching it herself. Everyone worked hard to block other Deimon members, letting her dash forward to run the ball herself. Eyeshield took off after her and Hiruma used his amazing agility to break free from our tight end's block. He tackled Mari to the ground, knocking the ball from her hands and laughing as Eyeshield caught it and ran a touchdown. I watched Hiruma hold his hand out to her and pick her up off of the ground.

When Deimon got possession of the ball, Mari devised a blitz. She decided to be the one to tackle Hiruma down, knowing none of us could match his agility. As he scoped out his receiver, Mari snuck around, which was easy for how small she was, and she charged him, catching him off guard. Judging by how Hiruma gripped his ribs when Mari pulled him up, she had hit him like a ton of bricks.

When the first half finally ended, we were beating Deimon 32-26. But, this was no time to get cocky. Through the third quarter and majority of the fourth, Deimon picked up their slack, scoring three touchdowns, leaving the score 44-32. There was only a minute left, and even if we managed to finish this play, we still would never play on the same field as Blaze again. Mari called a torpedo pass, winding her arm back and counting down, very much like Homer of the NASA Aliens. "Three, two, one…zero." She threw the ball and watched it fly through the air to the wide receiver who stood in the end zone. I had never seen a more beautiful pass. Just as our receiver jumped into the air to catch it, Deimon's receiver surprised him with a bump, throwing him off course and handing the other team the ball. He handed off to Eyeshield, who ran the ball down the field at an amazing speed. Just as he crossed the end zone, the game ended, ending the game with 50-32, almost twenty points more than us.

Mari stood in disbelief and stared up at the scoreboard for what could be the last time. "Youske." She gasped, falling to her knees. I reached out to catch her as she looked around at our faces, the school, all the things she had to leave behind.

"You're really going to make her go through with this?" I glared as my eyes met Hiruma's. "All the things she worked hard for, you're just going to let her throw it all away because of some bet?"

"A deal is a deal." They both said in unison, both with the same solemn look on their faces.

Mari pushed me away and stood shakily on her own two feet to face the many people who attended our school. Her hands shakily reached up to her helmet and the announcer leaned into the microphone. "Oh, what's this? Is Blaze finally going to make an appearance?"

"This is my retirement." She said in her plain voice, removing her helmet completely and letting her violet curls tumble down. There was a gasp from the crowd as the headmaster came down from the bleachers and forced her down to his office.

"Would you look at that. Blaze was our very own Mari Tanaka, captain of the Girls sports association. By rules of the Japanese school board, females caught playing all male sports will face expulsion, no matter how noble the cause."

"Hey!" I said out loud, catching attention. Everyone looked at me, surprised. "Can we have a moment of silence or something? We just lost the best football player our team had. She lead us through many victories, making us the fifth best school in the region. We just weren't prepared for the changes Deimon has gone through."

Mari looked back as she was being marched off the field, and to her surprise someone began to lead a chant. Shockingly, it was Rui Habashira. "Ma-ri! Ma-ri! Ma-ri!" He began, having people join in until almost both sides of the field began to scream her name. She gave an earnest smile and looked forward, holding her head high.

"She was some quarterback, huh?" I heard Eyeshield 21 say. "She was just like you, Hiruma."

Hiruma snorted. "Don't underestimate the enemy, pee-wee."

"There's no way she was better than you." Mamori piped up. "If she was that great, she could have turned any of those mediocre players into something to her advantage, right?"

"No, only they can do that for themselves. They would have won if we didn't have Eyeshield."

"No. We would have won if we actually had a team made up of players whose only goal was to win, who leaked determination, who had as much motivation as Mari and I." I cut in, looking out at my team who didn't seem phased at all that our quarterback was in the process of getting expelled. They just sat around, laughing and joking about their merry freaking lives, happy they weren't getting kicked out of school. I tossed my helmet to the ground and glared at the idiots Mari wasted her time on. "I give up." I took off my orange, yellow, and red jersey and the pads and threw them down too. "You're on your own."

Football just wasn't the same if I was protecting someone who wasn't Mari. She was the one who made the sport great. Maybe I could go join the soccer club, or work even harder on my grades…

"You're just going to quit?" I heard someone say from behind me. There stood Ryokan Kurita, the one who I had blocked the whole game. "You're going to leave your team behind?"

"Why should I stay? I only formed the football team for Mari, and if she isn't even in it, than why should I bother? None of those fools out there play football for the love of it, they played because they got to see glimpses of a girl changing in the locker room and to have an excuse to be on top of her."

"But, do you love football?"

"Sure, I'm crazy about it. But I can always find an even better team to play with. I'm done with Harijaku." I closed my eyes listened to the sound of everyone from Deimon walking away before I myself left Harijaku in the dust.

**Review(:**


	5. 4: Child's Play: Mari

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Chapter 4 - Child's Play

Mari

It was settled. I was to start at Deimon on Monday and I wasn't too happy about it, being that I had to be Hiruma's little slave. As soon as I was finally dismissed from the headmaster's office I ran home, relieved to find a shirtless Youske sitting on the front steps of the apartment complex. He rested his elbows on his knees and held his chin up as his long black bangs fell in his face. I stopped in front of him and knelt down to his level. "Why the long face, Suzuki?"

"I quit the team." He said, staring hard into my eyes with his olive green ones.

"I'm working hard and trying to find a better school to go to with a better football team. Maybe I'll pass the entrance exams?" He stood up, almost a full foot taller than I. He was maybe 202 centimeters tall, and had an amazing build. This became even more evident because all my eyes could see was chest when I stood to my feet. Sure, he was cute, but we'd been close friends for so long that I just couldn't see him as anything else but my best friend.

"I can't believe you quit." I said, unlocking the door. "I don't have anything you could wear. Rui was a lot shorter than you." Then I remembered I always had clothes for Youske at my place. I face palmed myself, let us in, and relocked the door when Youske was inside. He sat down on my couch in the same position he sat in on the front steps. "I do have clothes for you in the back." I went in my bedroom and dug out some of Youske's clothes. A green T-shirt, a pair of boxers, and a pair of jeans. "You can go ahead and get a bath. I can make us dinner or something." I set them on the sink counter and watched as he sulked back to the bathroom. Poor, broken hearted, burdened Youske.

I ended up just making ramen and we sat curled up on my bed eating after we both had cleaned up. "I hated just about everyone on the team anyway. I don't care if we were in the top five schools, we sucked." Youske admitted, flipping his hair off to one side and sighing.

"Shinryuji, Ojo, Seibu, Bando, Harijaku." I counted out on my fingers. "Then we have the dark horses rising up as Harijaku falls. Schools like Dokubari, Taiyo, Kyoshin, Deimon, even Zokugaku are almost able to take us- er…them down." I tapped my nails off of the side of the instant ramen cup and blew on the steam rising above it.

Youske finished the last of his noodles, placed the cup on the floor, and curled up into a ball, facing the wall. When I went to go do the dishes for the both of us, he fell asleep and lay still curled in that ball when I came back. I slowly dropped down next to him and ran my fingers through his long, silky hair to keep him lulled in a deeper sleep. All my life, when my actual brother couldn't be there, Youske was.

My family situation was confusing. My father had met my mother in Houston and they fell in love instantly without thinking twice. Of course my father had just recently had a son to a woman he had a one night stand with named Christiana Watt, hence the fact that my half brother Jeremy was born. Anyways, I was born a bastard child because mom refused to marry dad after she heard about my brother, and we lived in Japan together until I was four. Dad came back into the picture after not making it pro in the NFL and my mother fell in love with him again, and they got married. The relationship only lasted three years because my mother's job took up most of her time. As a doctor, she stayed at the hospital frequently and was constantly on call. So my dad took me back to America with him to go through elementary school and let me live with my mother one month out of the summer, which was August. During those times, I met Youske. After completing Elementary school, mom commanded that I be sent to Japan for middle school to begin schooling, considering Japanese children were more educated than American children and they wanted me to get the best schooling. From there on out, Youske played the role Jeremy couldn't from sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grade.

I reached down to kiss Youske's cheek before curling up on my own side of my bed and falling fast asleep, ready to put this hectic day behind me.

XxX

I had the worst seat in my English class and mathematics class. Right in front of Yoichi Hiruma, in the back of the room where no one could hear you scream. "Fucking American taking an English class? What a cheat." He murmured. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head as he pulled my ponytail.

I reached back and dug my nails into his wrist, making him let go. "God, you're a douche bag." I sighed, peeking back at him. "What do you want?"

"Tanaka, Hiruma. Is there a problem?" The teacher asked from the front of the room.

"Does it look like there's a problem?" Hiruma asked, pointing a gun at him.

"Of course not." The teacher murmured nervously as Hiruma and I turned back to each other.

"I need you to come with me to run an errand tonight." He said.

"What kind of errand?" I asked, wondering if he was going to use me as the devil's sidekick or something. Who's life were we going to make miserable tonight?

"You'll see. Meet me at the football club house at about six tonight." He gave my ponytail another good pull before rotating his finger to symbolize that I should turn around.

Pulling hair? God, Hiruma was such a child.

I was so happy when class finally ended that I practically ran out of the room to escape Hiruma's evil wrath. I turned a sharp corner into a quiet part of the school and pressed myself up against the wall. "Christ. I don't think I can put up with this." I mumbled to myself as I brought my hand up to cover my eyes. "He's the devil himself." I moved my hand from my eyes only to find Hiruma right there again. He held my cell phone in his hand.

"Don't you dare forget it, fucking eggplant." He said, handing me my phone. "You should probably be more careful."

"Yeah. Thanks, I guess." I tried not to make too much eye-contact. Part of me wondered if Hiruma could turn me into stone if I looked at him too long. I turned away and made my way to wherever it was that I needed to go. I knew this year wouldn't be fun under the command of Yoichi Hiruma, the devil of Deimon.


	6. 5: Shattered: Yoichi Hiruma

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Chapter 5 - Shattered

Hiruma

I watched as Mari stood confused in front of the tented clubhouse at six' o'clock sharp. I snuck up behind her, clamped my hand over her mouth and wrapped my free arm around her abdomen, pinning both arms to her sides. She gently bit my finger and I let her go. She turned to face me and crossed her arms. "What's with the cover over the clubhouse?"

"C'mon. I'll show you." I began to walk towards the building and Mari followed behind with her hands in her sweatshirt pockets. The sweatshirt obviously belonged to Habashira considering it was a deep purple with ZOKUGAKU CHAMELEONS printed in bright green on the front with a chameleon on it, and read HABASHIRA down the right arm. Plus, the sleeves were super long. "Do you miss Habashira?" I caught myself asking before I could stop myself.

"That's not something I like to talk about." She answered softly. I had seen this girl get thrown around and slammed into the ground and stand up completely unshaken, but then with the slight mention of Habashira's name she looked like she had just been drug through battle and was close to tears.

"Then why are you torturing yourself by keeping his things around?" I lifted up one of the flaps and Mari crawled under it. We stepped into the newly remodeled clubhouse and walked into the new locker room that had been added. When I turned to ask her what she thought, I saw that she had her back turned to me and she was trying to discreetly wipe tears away with her sleeve. "Why waste your tears on that idiot?"

"You've never been in love, have you?" She asked. Of course the answer was no. And she knew that. "When you do, and then have that person you love rip your heart out of your chest and walk away with it you think back to this moment. Only then will you understand."

"I never plan to be stupid enough to fall in love. It's a useless emotion." I scoffed. I did things alone. Never would I let myself get into the state Mari was in. "An emotion that you shouldn't waste on trash like Rui Habashira."

"_He isn't trash!_" She shrieked. Her sudden outburst took me by surprise.

By the time the rest of the team arrived for the grand unveiling, there was no sign that Mari had been crying. She looked just the same as always with that far away gaze in her eyes and her mouth turned into a smirk. Like myself and the Ha-ha brothers, she sat off to the side while everyone else celebrated. When Manajerk noticed, she brought over a small piece of cake and some advise. "The only way to mend a broken heart is to make it whole again. You have a family that isn't just made up of Habashira. You have friends, you have a life. Not everything was built around him. Sure, your home life isn't the greatest but not only are we your team mates, we can be your family as well."

Mari's eyes slowly traveled up to meet hers. It was then that she stood up and walked away, trying to hold herself together until she got outside. I met Mamori's eyes from across the room, closed my laptop and left the room. I found her standing under a tree a good distance away from everything crying into her hands and shaking vehemently. "Is falling in love really worth all of this?" I asked, making my presence known. "How could something so small bring one of the strongest people I have ever met to their knees?"

"Once upon a time, I didn't give a shit." She responded through sobs. "I had no emotion, nothing bothered me, I was just fine. I was truly strong. Then my whole body was shut down just by one incident. I never got attached to people, I stayed as far away from them as possible. All I had and all I needed was Youske, and now I'm not even sure if I have _him _anymore. He's so distant…"

"It feels like the end of the world right now." I looked over at the sun that began to set behind the trees. "But it isn't."

"It feels like someone just grabbed my life, slammed it against a wall and shattered it like glass." She sat down on the ground looking defeated from her emotions. "I try to tell myself that I really don't give a shit, but really, I do."

"Stick close to Mamori." I said, giving the only advice I had. I put my hands in my pockets and walked away. When I came back in, Mamori looked at me, asking me what had happened with her eyes. I then looked down at everyone else, who did the same thing. Mari was part of the Deimon family now. Sure, her role was unknown for the moment, but everyone worried about her the same.

"I think she needs some max cheering up." Butt-monkey suddenly announced. When he stood up, I shot my assault rifle into the ceiling.

"No." I spat. What she needed was some time to cry it out instead of holding it all inside.

"I say we let her come back in on her own." Mamori placed another piece of cake in front of Sena and looked out the window towards the tree Mari stood on the other side of.

"Poor girl." Yukimitzu frowned.

"The last thing she'd want is pity." I spoke up.

"We'll get our revenge for her out on the field." Sena said, getting that look of determination in his eyes that made him seem more and more like Eyeshield 21.

To be honest, I was proud of what the Devil bats had become so far. Of course, I wasn't satisfied at all, but proud of what little we had. Sena was slowly learning to overcome fear and become faster, Monta gained a true love of football, Kurita and Fatty Jr. were working hard on the line, eventually the Ha-Ha brothers would come around, Even Manajerk and Baldini were becoming useful assets on the field. If we kept finding members with enough skill and determination, the Devil Bats would become unstoppable. Possibly even better than the Nagas.

"What exactly are we going to have her do, anyway?" Mamori asked. "I mean, Sena and I are managers and girls aren't allowed to play."

"She'll help me with plays, of course." I said. "If she got an idiot team like Harijaku into one of the top five schools, imagine what she can do for Deimon."

"That's if she even agrees." She added, still gazing out the window. "Do you even have blackmail on her?"

"Of course." I lied. Not much was known about Mari Tanaka. I looked everywhere. I wondered if she might have changed her name when she came to Japan. I ran a second search on her. That's when I saw a name that caught my interest. A Mari Apollo that lived in Houston Texas. I scrolled over it and began to read. Her parents were listed as Leonard Apollo and Haruka Tanaka. "No way." I gasped.

"What?" Everyone looked up.

"Nothing. It's nothing." I murmured, closing my laptop. No wonder she was so interested in football. She had been raised in a football background. Apollo had been in the pro NFL for the longest time until he was replaced by someone of intense ability. I planned on facing Apollo's team, so if I had to turn father against daughter, then so be it. "Hey, Pee-wee. Come here. I want to show you something." I picked up an issue of American Football Monthly and handed it to Sena. "Read the page I bookmarked."

As Sena read about going against X-high's NASA Aliens, everyone listened. "They'll be picked by random lottery? But there's a tournament going on right now. It's all low grade teams."

"I sent our application in two days ago." I said as my phone rang. When I went to check the message. It was from American Football Monthly stating they had already picked a team. The Taiyo Sphinx. Obviously they had been pre-selected. I let the team know this. "I think I have Tanaka's first assignment. Kurita, I'm taking you and that fucking eggplant with me to go have a chat with the editor of American Football Monthly."


	7. 6: Espionage: Mari

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Chapter 6 - Espionage

Mari

I had been peacefully studying and eating dinner with Youske when the spray of AK-47 bullets were shot into the sky outside of my apartment. I walked out to the balcony that faced the street only to find Hiruma bathed in the glow of a street light. "Fuck, Hiruma! Do you know what the hell a damn doorbell is?"

"I got a job for you, Fucking Eggplant."

I sensitively touched my violet colored hair and pouted. I hated being called eggplant. "Maybe I don't want to work for you."

"Too damn bad. We made a deal, remember? Should I go find my witness?" He looked around. "Rui Habashira?" When he looked back up at me, he was smiling like the Cheshire cat. "You've got thirty seconds to get your slave ass down here…or else."

I didn't feel like wasting the time to ask what "or else" was, so I fucking ran down four flights of stairs. Youske leaned over the balcony to look down at us. "Shoes, Mari." He tossed down a pair of flip flops and smiled flirtatiously. "_Have fun_." He called in a singsong voice. I flipped him off and looked over at Hiruma.

"I'll explain what we have to do on the way there." He stated as he grabbed my arm and lead me down the street. "First I have to know how good you are at hacking."

"It got me kicked out of school back in Houston…Why?" Now I was worried. What would he make me do? I wondered what he even needed me for. He was able to hack into computers expertly.

"Then I'll pick the locks and keep watch while you hack into someone's computer files for me."

"There's no way I'm doing something like that for you. Why can't you do it yourself?"

"Listen." He put his arm around my shoulder and clamped his other hand over my mouth. "We're breaking into the editor's office of American Football Monthly. I sent in an application there for us to play against an American Team coming to Japan. They say that the winning team was chosen by random lottery, but that's a lie. The results came by way too early for it to be random lottery. So, I'm going to make sure Deimon gets a shot against this team."

"Wait…I seen that article." I said, glaring at Hiruma. The school we'd be playing against is X high, the school where my dad was the football coach. "There's no way I'm helping you now!"

"Ah, ah, ah. Just because you have daddy issues doesn't mean we're going to back down from a chance to get ourselves noticed."

Daddy issues? How the fuck did he know? Then I snorted. "You're one to talk. You've got quite a few daddy issues yourself." Of course I read up all the information I could on Hiruma before I came to Deimon. If he was going to try and blackmail me, I was going to blackmail back.

He glared at me, then pointed a pistol right up under my chin. I could feel the cold metal chilling my skin and giving me goose bumps. "What was your ultimate goal as the quarterback of Harijaku?" He asked me.

I glared back and pulled out my Desert Eagle, pointing it back at him. "What the hell does that matter?"

"What was your ultimate goal as the quarterback of Harijaku?" He repeated. "Answer me, fucking eggplant."

"To go to the Christmas Bowl." I said, looking away from his burning emerald eyes.

"And what would you have done to get there?"

"Anything." I whispered.

"Then you understand why I'm doing all of this. This is my last year to lead Deimon to victory. After the fall tournament, I have to give up football and work on getting into collage. This is your last year to do it too."

He was right…He wanted the Devil Bats to get all of the help that they could get. Playing against the NASA Aliens was going to be a challenge, especially if my father let Panther finally play.

So we approached the building of American Football Monthly and Hiruma picked the lock with his earring. On the side, I managed to put in the correct access code to shut down the security system and we made our way up seventeen flights of stairs to get to the top of the building. When we got to the main office I made my way to the main record computer, hacked through the system and followed Hiruma's heavy direction. I sent a message from the computer to Hiruma's phone stating that the Devil Bats won the random lottery and then we left everything the way we found it.

"I'll help Deimon win at all costs." I found myself saying as we walked home. "I've seen the Aliens play, I know what they can do."

"I know." Hiruma placed his hands in his pocket. "Your torpedo pass is a little bit like the shuttle pass."

I laughed at the memories of Homer Fitzgerald trying to teach me how to throw like him last summer. The look on my dad's face was priceless as the ball soared through the air and right into the hands of Jeremy, who had been just walking out of the house. Of course, in the Apollo/Watt/Tanaka household, moments like that never lasted. I had moved in with my mother not just for the reason of getting better schooling, but because he would beat me. Of course, no one knew that. No one except for Youske…and Fitzgerald. At least he didn't beat me anymore, not since Fitzgerald threatened to quit the team if he ever laid a hand on me ever again.

XxX

The office for American Football Monthly looked a lot different during the day. The editor-in-chief didn't look too happy as Hiruma, Kurita, and I ll sat on the couch squished together (The couch was pretty big sized…but so was Kurita). "If you want the NASA Aliens to play against you at all, I suggest you at least give us the chance to beat the Sphinx. When we win, it'll show we're obviously the better team." Hiruma smiled that devilish grin and crossed his arms.

Harao, the Sphinx quarterback snorted. "What makes you think you have a say in what the Aliens do?"

"Do any of you know Leonard Apollo's daughter?" Hiruma asked. "She has a great deal of say in what the Aliens do."

On cue, I picked up my phone and dialed my father's number. He picked up on the first ring. "Yes, Mari?" He asked. I looked up at the clock and breathed a sigh of relief. It was only about eight at night in Houston.

"Don't you dare play that game against the Taiyo Sphinx." I said into the receiver. "They were picked unfairly and I demand that you call the editorial to fix it."

"What does it matter, Bumblebee?" He said into the phone in a smooth voice.

"I want Deimon High to have a chance to play against you. Call the editor and demand that you want Deimon and Taiyo to have a play-off game to see who deserves the right to play against you. You know what will happen if you don't, right?" Before he had a chance to say something, I hung up the phone and waited.

When the editor's phone rang, he jumped. He answered it and apparently my father was yelling so loud that he thrust the phone away from his ear and shot me a dirty look. He murmured something back and hung up. "Fine. Deimon and Taiyo will have a game to see who deserves the right to represent Japan."

I smiled, stood up and brushed past Harao who slipped something into my hand a I walked past. When we began to walk home I finally looked at the small piece of paper he slipped into my hand. "His phone number?"

"Would you look at that?" Hiruma pulled it out of my hand and ruffled my hair. He pulled out his lighter and caught the paper on fire. When it fell in a pile of ashes on the ground he walked right on through it with his hands in his pockets without ever looking back.

"What was that about?" I asked Kurita.

"I'm not sure. Do you want to go out for something to eat, Mari? It'll be my treat. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be able to have a shot playing against the Americans." He looked around for a good restaurant. When I nodded he looked forward at Hiruma. "What about you, Hiruma?"

"Sure. Why the fuck not?"


	8. 7: Second Chance: Habashira

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Chapter 7 - Second Chance

Rui

Through the smoke I could see two people close together. Their silhouettes made them obvious. Hiruma and Mari walked forward, both holding guns and still in their Deimon uniforms. It wasn't until that moment that I realized Mari had the same exact personality as that fucking devil.

"Fucking Chameleon, Come here." Hiruma demanded. I didn't want Mari to think I was weak, but I stepped up. "I want you to train my lineman. As my slaves, I leave it up to you."

"Show me what they can do." I said as numbers 51, 52, and 53 stepped out from behind the commander of hell and his siren of an assistant.

"Kuroki." Mari took several long steps back. "Rush at me."

"No!" Number 52 stared at the small girl with a look of contempt.

Mari walked up to him, grabbed him by the front of his jersey and narrowed her eyes. "Nobody tells me no." She hissed. "And you better wipe that cocky look off of your fucking face. You probably wouldn't be able to take me down anyway. You call yourself a lineman?"

"She's always full of piss and vinegar." I caught myself saying. Immediately, I wiped the pride from my face. Mari wasn't mine anymore.

Kuroki tried to catch Mari off guard when he went to take her down as a plan of revenge for making him look weak. She surprised him by hitting him so hard and in the right place that it knocked the wind out of him and knocked him back, face up.

She turned to number 53. "Togano. Take me down." He was reluctant to charge at her, but he did anyway. At the last second, she juked out of the way and slammed into him from the side, knocking him down onto the ground. "And Jumonji?" She stared hard at number 51 and smiled. Just by the look on his face, I felt that he was determined enough that it could take Mari down.

"Wait, no." I stepped in between them. "Come at me instead."

This was a good move on her part. It was at that moment that I was the first person to become victim of the delinquent deathblow.

Mari and Hiruma glanced at each other and shared a devilish smirk. Neither of them said anything as Mari wrote the new move in her playbook. As I watched her take more notes and occasionally whisper to Hiruma, I wondered why I left her there standing along bathed in the moonlight two days before our three year anniversary.

XxX

At night I found that I had trouble sleeping without having Mari's gentle breathing to lull me to sleep so I had taken a habit of walking around at night to watch everyone live happier lives that myself. As I walked past a small café a few blocks away from Mari's apartment, I found her sitting at a table with Hiruma who was reading something to her from his laptop screen as she drew out plays on cards with copic markers. He looked away from the screen to say something to her that made her blush and point her marker at him. Her lips formed the words "Watch it!" The look in her eyes told me that she was falling for him slowly, even if she didn't want to.

I walked past, staring straight ahead when I heard a tap on the glass. There sat Megu with a smirk on her face. She waved for me to come in and talk to her, and I did. I walked past Mari and Hiruma's table without giving them a second glance. "So, did you see Tanaka and Hiruma?" She asked.

"Of course." I sighed. "It looks like she's over it."

"Nope. She isn't." She flicked her bangs out of her eyes and took a sip of coffee. "Look. But do it discretely."

I pulled out my knife and flicked the blade out to peek at Mari in the reflection. She had gone from giggly to solemn when she had seen me. I watched as Hiruma looked all around, shut his laptop and placed his hand over the card she was working on. She looked up at him with those bright green eyes and he said something to her. She nodded and walked back to the restroom while Hiruma cleaned up all of her things. He looked back at me, glared into the knife and pulled out his phone. He made a quick call and Mari came out of the bathroom as soon as he hung up. They walked out of the café together and down the street. "She's having a hard time holding herself together."

"If you miss her, why don't you try to get back with her? Obviously she isn't playing football anymore."

"You know what? I think I might try that." I stood up and walked to Mari's apartment. I hid behind the side of a building until I saw Hiruma hand Mari all of her things, give her a quick nod and leave. I walked into the apartment complex, up to Mari's floor and gave a gentle knock on the door. She answered the door in tears and glared hard at me.

"What do you want, Rui?" She demanded, immediately wiping her eyes and regaining her hardened demeanor.

"I don't like how things ended. Do you think that there's any way we could try this again?"

"What, you breaking up with me?" She gripped the doorframe hard, her knuckles turned white.

"No, us being together." I whispered and reached out to grab the small hand that dangled at her side. The second our skin made contact she fell forward into my arms and began to sob. I wrapped my arms around her and blinked back the tears that formed in my eyes. "I love you, Mari."

"I love you too, Rui. But all this made me realize how dependant I am on you and I don't want to be…"

I broke our embrace only for a second to walk into her house, shut the door and look back at her. I intertwined my fingers in her violet hair and let my lips find hers. Everything fell into place just the way it should be. Not one thing was different, other than the taste of tears and hurt. I pulled my shirt over my head, then worked on unbuttoning hers as she reached down to unclasp my belt. I slid the school shirt down her arms and let it fall down to the floor. I stepped out of my pants and lifted her in the air, resting my hands on her backside to hold her up. Her legs wrapped around my waist, her arms wrapped around my neck. Suddenly, she began to sob again. "Mari? What's wrong?" I asked gently. I set her down and let her cry into my chest.

"I can't do this. Rui, it's over. I don't think I can trust you again."

No matter how tightly I held her, she continued to fall apart. I felt her body slowly go weak in my arms as she continued to shake vehemently. I picked her up and carried her into her bedroom, undressed her from her school clothes and tucked her into bed. She fell asleep instantly and I kissed her forehead. She still had a lot of things she hadn't done, such as laundry and cleaning up, so I did them for her. I left her a note by her bed, locked everything up and left. I kept my hands in my pocket and stared straight ahead as I made my way home, and nearly fell over when Hiruma walked out from an alleyway and stood in front of me.

"Leave her alone." He said, ending his statement by blowing a huge bubble with his sugarless gum and walking past me. I reached my arm out and grabbed him, holding him still.

"Who do you think you are?" I snarled, just plain angry that Hiruma seemed to have taken interest in Mari, who was still mine. She was just upset for the moment, she'd come around.

"You haven't seen what you put her through. Just leave her alone."

"So you can have her? Like hell I will."

He fired his assault rifle into the air and glared at me. "Like I'd take interest in that fucking eggplant. She isn't as useful to me with you hanging around. When you're around, she remembers that football is the reason why you left."

"_She isn't as useful to you when I'm hanging around? _I swear to fucking god, Hiruma. If you use her, I'll kill you." I pulled out my butterfly knife and pointed the blade at him.

"I don't get what she ever saw in you." He slapped my hand away and continued to walk down the street. I clenched the knife harder and ran at him, hoping to get him from behind. He dodged at the last possible second. At that moment, Mari came outside wrapped in her robe and fired a warning shot in the air with her Magnum.

"Rui, you better stop it right now. You're acting just like the street trash everyone thinks you are. If you even slice one hair on his head, I'll dismantle your fucking bike faster than you can blink."

If that bitch wanted to go off and fuck Hiruma, she could for all I fucking cared. If she had trust issues with me, imagine how it would be with that blackmailing douchebag. "Fuck you both." I said, shrugging and walking away. "Especially you, Mari. You stupid fucking whore."


	9. 8: Rebuild: Hiruma

_**((Author's note: Guess what? I don't know what I should make my next chapter about. If anyone has any ideas, I'd take them greatly(: And if anyone has any ideas of who's point of view I should do next, I'll accept them as well! Help meeeeee. Heeeeeelllllpppp meeeeee. Oh, and PLEASE REVIEW. I LOVE REVIEWS! I love my reviewing fans! *coughHorseKid109(Who may I add has wonderfully reviewed every chapter!)...sora...Narcoleptic-Since-89COUGH*))**_

Heartshield 01

Chapter 8 - Rebuild

Hiruma

When I walked onto the Deimon fields as early as four in the morning, I was shocked to find Mari there already with Youske. They were throwing a football back and forth as I listened to Mari recall the night before. Her throws got harder, her ferocity was almost scary. Finally, Youske dodged a ball racing as fast as a bullet and looked down at his scratched and bleeding hands. "You know what? Maybe this isn't a good idea for right now." He murmured, hiding them behind his back.

"Eggplant." I said, catching both of their attention. Mari peeked at me through the hair that curtained her eyes and turned away. I looked over at Youske who smirked and slowly walked away.

"Youske!" She hissed, looking over at her longtime friend.

"I'll talk to you later, Mari." He sighed, shaking his head. He continued to walk away and Mari glanced up at me. Her face was full of anger and hate. But even I understood that anger was only a mask for hurt. Mari needed someone to comfort her, and Youske couldn't handle that job. He didn't know how to handle people like Mari. People like us were confusing. Sometimes, it was an advantage, but now it would be Mari's downfall. Eventually, she'd pull herself away from everyone, then just drop off the face of the Earth.

"He's trash. Fucking pick yourself up off the ground and don't expect Suzuki to do it for you." I said, glancing down at her. My goal was to get her to cry again. Not because I'm an asshole though, but because she needed to.

"_He's not trash!_" She growled.

"He's a brute and he's worthless. He'll never amount to anything. Are you going to let him drag you down too? Do you want a future in popping out the kids he's not even going to raise? Do you want to live a ghetto life and worry about what you're family's up to and if they're safe?"

"Rui isn't like that." Her fingers gripped the football hard and she wound her arm back. She threw the hardest, fastest torpedo pass I had ever seen. When the ball hit the side of the building, I was shocked that the ball didn't pop, or go through the bricks. "You don't know him the way I do. You don't understand!"

"I understand, Tanaka." I got inches from her face. "And you want to know something? You're just as worthless as he is if you're going to sit around and mope over that fucking idiot."

"You don't know him at all. Rui Habashira isn't trash."

"Well, he calls you a stupid fucking whore and you still hold him in the rose tinted glass. That's fucking wonderful. Mari."

"Just…shut up!" She was beginning to reach her breaking point. Her fists were clenched at her sides, her eyes were rimmed with tears. She turned to run away, but I grabbed her arm and forced her to stay still. "What the hell is your problem? Do you like, feed off of my pain? Is it funny to see me cry?" The tears fell down her face.

"Tears are pain leaving the body, pain is weakness leaving the body." I said stiffly, holding my grip on her. "You have to rebuild your life. He's just a high school love that you're going beat yourself up for crying over in the future. You acting this way is just showing him how much control he has over your life."

"What's it matter to you? Maybe I just want to be miserable alone."

"No, you don't." I sighed. I was doing this because once, I had to be miserable alone. No parents, no friends. All I had to get me through the day was the dream of making it big in football. I didn't want Mari to feel the same pain I had to. Call it strange, but I actually cared about how this…this _fucking eggplant _got through this.

One by one, more tears fell. Her body shook, her breathing became hoarse. She sunk down to the ground and cried into her hands. I had never seen someone in so much pain over a stupid fucking piece of trash boy. I looked around and saw no one, so I knelt on the ground across from her and pulled her face up by her chin. She turned away from me and looked across the field at Youske who was smiling gratefully.

XxX

All day, I watched as people stared hard at Mari and her bloodshot eyes and her oversensitivity to everything. They all thought she was hung over. But Mari was the kind of girl who would rather people thing that than think she was crying in the middle of the field over a piece of trash guy who didn't deserve a girl like her. During after-school practice she just sat there with a impatient look plastered onto her face and did nothing. Everyone tried to talk to her, she wouldn't respond. Finally, I grabbed her by the arms. "Your mute, unresponsive act is getting old." I hissed.

"What the fuck does it matter to you?" She asked, giving me that stony stare of hers.

"We have a game to play in two days. You better get back on your feet in time, because Habashira is going to be there, and so are you."

"What the fuck does any of this matter to you at all? It won't make a lick bit of difference if I'm there or not. You just like to watch me suffer, get under my skin, watch me squirm." She stood up and walked around me. I watched her walk off towards the clubhouse trying to hold back from crying with every ounce of dignity she had. It was getting easier and easier for her to let the tears out.

"Hiruma, why can't you just leave her alone?" Mamori asked, walking towards her to comfort her. Mari slapped her comforting hand away and walked way past the clubhouse and all the way down the street. Sure, she was angry now, but she'd get over it.

"Manajerk, don't baby her." I demanded.

"Are you really going to make her go to the Taiyo game?"

"If she doesn't show up, she's off the team because that means she'd rather let one punk piece of trash boy get in her way than come and support her team." I said, looking at everyone. "None of you are to baby that little brat. She can take care of herself."

"You're entirely insensitive." Jumonji spoke up, turning to walk off the field. "You just don't understand what it's like to be in her shoes." I watched as he jogged off after her and shook my head. There was no way Mari was going to get any stronger if she was going to let everyone baby her and pity her. I couldn't believe a girl like her wouldn't take full advantage of this to make herself stronger, more impervious to heartbreak.

"What did she ever do to you, Hiruma?" Kurita spoke up. It was rare that he ever spoke up to anything I said, but then again, it seemed as if I was picking on this girl personally and Kurita was worried for her well being.

_**((Author's note: Guess what? I don't know what I should make my next chapter about. If anyone has any ideas, I'd take them greatly(: And if anyone has any ideas of who's point of view I should do next, I'll accept them as well! Help meeeeee. Heeeeeelllllpppp meeeeee. Oh, and PLEASE REVIEW. I LOVE REVIEWS! I love my reviewing fans! *coughHorseKid109(Who may I add has wonderfully reviewed every chapter!)...sora...Narcoleptic-Since-89COUGH*))**_


	10. 9: Guardian Demon: Mari

Heartshield 01

Chapter 9 - Guardian Demon

Mari

I didn't know what was wrong with me, what made me stop just outside of the school and break down in public. I didn't want people to think I was weak, especially Hiruma. I didn't expect him to pity me, or even care for that matter, but he didn't need to be such as asshole about it. Believe it or not, I had a heart and I was oversensitive about everything that he did. I clenched my fists at my sides and dug my nails into my palms to try and quell my violent sobs. I could feel the blood slipping through the cracks of my fingers. I was angry with myself. I wound my fist back and reached out to punch the tree I stood near.

A large tan hand stopped the blow. "Don't take it personal." Came the deep voice that followed. Before me stood the main campus carpenter. "Pretty girls shouldn't cry, either."

I knew him as Musashi. He had been the Devil Bat's kicker before his father's accident. He had been one of Kurita and Hiruma's closest friends. "What's it matter? He's impossible to beat…I can't block him out."

"Believe it or not, he's doing this for your own good." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rag to dab away my tears. Then he wrapped my bleeding hands in fabric he ripped from his shirt. I felt so tired and overwhelmed. I've never felt so defeated in my life. I slumped forward into the strong carpenter's arms and blacked out.

XxX

When I came to, I found myself in a hospital bed with Hiruma sitting across the room on his laptop. Everything around me was so white. And quiet. That is until Hiruma's phone rang and I immediately snapped my eyes shut. "She's still out." I heard him murmur. He then let out his signature 'Kehehehe' snigger. "It's the most innocent I've ever seen her…Hell no! Are you fucking stupid?" There was a very long pause. "You don't know that. I'm pretty sure she's eating…_No_, she's going to the Taiyo game….whatever. What do you want me to fucking do, baby-sit her? She has Suzuki for that. Maybe you should start being a father and take care of her yourself…Fuck, I'll do it, don't do that. Yeah, fuck you too, you stupid old man." He snapped his phone shut and exhaled. "You're a fucking idiot, Tanaka." I felt him brush my bangs from my face. When he moved down to rest his hand on my cheek, I slowly opened my eyes hoping to catch him off guard. "You're not running a fever anymore." He said as an excuse.

"What happened?" I asked. My memory was hazy.

"You passed out three days ago. Musashi carried you to the clubhouse and we brought you here. And now I have to baby-sit your stupid ass while Suzuki moves into his new dorm. He finally got into a different school. Don't ask me which one." He explained. "I'm surprised you didn't die, you were pretty fucked up. Get dressed and let's go. I brought you clothes. You're allowed to be discharged today as long as you're under the constant care of someone."

"But you're a minor. They'd never let me leave with you…"

"Really?" Hiruma held up his threat book. "I tried to track down your mother in all of this. She collapsed of exhaustion a year ago. She's been in a coma and down the hall ever since."

I felt my heart drop. "Please, don't tell anyone…" I whimpered. "I can't go back to my dad…The doctors promised not to tell…"

"Shh." He brought his finger up to his lips. "I talked to your old friend Fitzgerald. There's no way I'd let you go back there, I don't care how much we hate each other."

I sighed and took the clothes Hiruma brought me and walked into the hospital bathroom. When I looked up in the mirror, I couldn't believe what I saw. My skin looked pale, my eyes were sunken in and my hair was beginning to fade back into red. When I took my shirt off, I noticed how much weight I had lost and my jeans almost fell off my hips when I buttoned them. I walked out of the bathroom and looked at Hiruma. He must not have noticed how sick I was either because he looked shocked to see how tiny and frail I looked.

"We're going out to eat." He said immediately. "This is ridiculous, eggplant. And while we're at it, we're going to do something about your hair."

XxX

Hiruma took me out to a pretty nice restaurant. I was actually shocked, considering I didn't think I was worth the thought. He ordered two large steak dinners and said we weren't going to leave until I ate all of mine and he watched. "You were already too thin. A week and a half without eating or sleep wasn't very good on your part." He stated, as he had already finished three bites of his dinner before I even managed the one. Amazingly, the first bite went down easier than expected. So did the whole first half of the steak. When I began to feel full, I picked at the vegetables and the side and took a long break when they were gone. "Take the rest home. I don't want you to get sick." He stated. "You can eat it tonight."

Next, he dropped me off at a salon to dye my hair back to its original ginger color. "The purple was a stupid choice." He said to the stylist. "Dye it red and cut It to about here." He reached forward and grabbed a part just below my shoulder.

"No way." I said, backing towards the door. He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward effortlessly.

"You do as I say." He stated, patting the black book in his pocket. "I'll never send you back to Apollo, but I can send you to an institution for girls like you." He whispered as he placed a cold hand on my shoulder. "Now, go."

How a sixteen year old got custody of another sixteen year old is beyond me. Hiruma must have blackmailed _God _or something.

All I can say is that Hiruma took advantage of being my guardian. For the next two days he told me what to eat, where to go, when to get up and go to bed, and when to jump and how high. I looked at the clubhouse calendar on the wall one day when I realized that I had been in the hospital during the Taiyo game. "Hiruma?" I asked, looking over at him as he typed madly on his laptop. He momentarily stopped and looked at me. "Did we when the Taiyo game?" I asked.

"No." He said, going back to his work. After a minute of silence he finally spoke again. "We tied. They gave us the right though because we would have won if we would have had a kicker."

"So we're going to play against…" My voice trailed off as I looked off into space.

"He isn't going to lay a hand on you. He'll have to get through me first." He said. At the same time, we realized what had come out of his mouth. He narrowed his eyes. "I am your guardian after all. It's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to you." My Guardian Demon..

"But why would you go through all of this?"

"You're a great strategist." Was all he said.

What was I expecting him to say? "Because I care about you?"

Yeah, right.

What was I thinking? Was I falling for this idiot demon?

Sena had an Eyeshield to protect his identity. Where could I get a Heartshield to protect my heart?


	11. 10: Damaged Goods: Homer Fitzgerald

((Author's note: It appears that I have been spelling Youske wrong…it's actually spelled Yousuke. My bad.))

Heartshield 01

Chapter 10 - Damaged Goods

Homer Fitzgerald

* * * Flashback * * *

I always knew Maria was Jeremy's little sister, but I didn't take much notice of her until her twelfth birthday. Normally girls her age would celebrate with a close clique of girls, but instead of going into the Apollo household and finding her giggling about things girls her age should be talking about I found her in the strong grip of a drunk Coach Apollo as he hit her repeatedly for not sweeping the floor correctly. Shockingly, she wasn't crying. Her face was blank of all expression even though she was bleeding when he was done. He even took the care to burn her in the arm with a cigarette.

"Why can't you do anything right?" He screamed at her. She did not speak. "You're the reason why your mother left."

"No, you're the reason why my mother left." She blurted. She slipped through his grip and he grabbed for her again. She dodged with impressive agility and grabbed a beer bottle that had been sitting on the counter.

"You little bitch! You're going to get it." Apollo hissed. She cracked the bottle off the side of the counter and pointed at him, as she climbed on top of the counter to escape the broken glass. He smacked the bottle from her hand and it flew across the kitchen, smashing on the floor. He grabbed her by the hair and slapped her hard across the face. "Why can't you be a good little girl, Maria?" He started to sob and he clenched the girl paralyzed with fear to his chest. "Why can't you be more like your brother?"

I felt a hand come down on my shoulder from the place where I spectated. Jeremy pulled me back into the laundry room. "You can't tell anyone what you just saw." He begged.

"Is that why she's home schooled?" I asked. I had always wondered why Jeremy could go to public school, but Maria wasn't allowed. "So your dad can beat the shit out of her and no one would find out?"

"Don't say anything, Fitz. I don't have anywhere else to go."

I told him I promised I wouldn't…unless Maria was hit that badly again. I seen her later that day in the woods back behind the Apollo household. She stood in a very high tree and looked down. She closed her eyes and stepped a foot out. She was going to jump from the tree and try to kill herself.

"Don't." I said, not loud enough to scare her out of losing balance, but stern enough to get her to step her foot back and look down at me curiously.

"Homer!" She said, gripping the side of the tree.

"Just sit down for a sec. I'm going to come up there and talk to you, okay?" I took the rough bark of the willow tree in the side of my hand, then jumped up to grab a sturdy branch. I pulled myself up onto it until I was eventually high up and sitting on the thick branch next to her. It wasn't until then I realized how tiny she was. She was only a year younger than me and I was a whole head taller than she. "I saw what happened earlier." I said.

"No, you didn't." She said sternly.

"Yeah, I did. You saying I didn't isn't going to change anything." I snorted. "First off, you need to learn how to defend yourself. You cracking that beer bottle against the counter was a good start, but you need to back it up."

"He played for the NFL. He's strong, fast, determined. No amount of your help is going to change that." "We're just going to have to see. Follow me." I climbed down the tree and she followed behind. I grabbed her arm and lead her up to the house where Apollo sat on the couch staring into nowhere. "Coach." I said sternly. He looked up at me, then noticed I had Maria next to me.

"Maria, I told you to stay away from my players. Get upstairs and we'll talk about it later." He said sweetly.

"No you won't 'talk about it later'. You're going to beat the living shit out of her." I said. I then unzipped the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing and threw it to the floor. I had never seen someone so scared in their life. I saw the welts and bruises and burns and suddenly became more infuriated. It was worse that I thought. "You monster." I pulled him up by the collar of his shirt, adrenaline racing. "You touch her ever again and I'll make sure your life is the worst hell imaginable."

"Homer…" Maria whispered.

I dropped that piece of trash coach on the ground and that was the last that I ever heard of him laying a hand on her. We became closer and closer her last year in America.

* * * End flashback * * *

I hadn't planned to see Maria just yet, but when I caught a glimpse of her sitting in that coffee shop, her face full of concentration and flecks of rainbow copic marker colors on her hands I just had to go see her. She wasn't the "purple haired ruffian who was going to grow up to be the baby mama of a gang member (as claimed by Apollo)", instead she was a beautiful and talented young lady. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail with a black ribbon and she wore a beige sweater, a dark gray satin ruffle skirt and high black socks.

Across from her sat Yoichi Hiruma, the Deimon Devil Bat's quarterback. He typed busily on his laptop as she designed what seemed to be a portrait of the team on a large piece of paper. Next to it sat a napkin sketch that had been done by Hiruma…and it didn't look that bad.

He began to speak to her and she looked up from her work with a look on her face that made my stomach lurch. Her green eyes were full of admiration and _love_. Her glossy lips upturned into a shy smile and her cheeks flared a rose color. She nervously twirled her hair around her finger and turned in the other direction as she spoke. I watched him reach across the table, take her chin his hand and turn it towards him. She turned even redder and stood up. The demonic quarterback pointed back down to the seat and she immediately sat back down, apologizing profusely. She then said something that actually made _Hiruma _of all people blush. It was only for a brief second though, and Maria didn't catch it.

"Why don't we go in and order something?" I heard someone say in my ear. I jumped and turned to see Panther and Jeremy standing there with their arms crossed and sniggering. "Don't tell me you're still in love with her after all of this time." Jeremy teased.

I guess after all this time, I was still really in love with Maria Apollo (Even if she was Damaged Goods)…but she was cast under the spell of Yoichi Hiruma, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had to keep a realistic head. She lived all the way here in Japan, and I lived in America. The Pacific ocean stood in between us, while she was inches from Hiruma at all times. He may have beat me to her heart, but I'd show him I was the better quarterback.


	12. 11: Discipline: Jeremy Watt

((This one's a really short chapter. For that, I apologize..))

Heartshield 01

Chapter 11 - Discipline

Watt

Dad didn't want Maria to know we were here quite yet so we could keep an eye on her and determine whether she was under good enough care in Japan. I was almost positive any kind of care under Yoichi Hiruma, the devil himself, wasn't going to be good. But she was better off living with Hiruma than back in America with us, so that's why I stood outside of the coffee shop…so I could warn Maria and Hiruma to be on their best behavior. I tapped lightly on the glass and found myself being frozen by the coldness of her green eyes. Something in her had snapped since last summer when I last seen her. Habashira breaking up with her had took a drastic toll on her appearance. She looked so mean and uninviting. But as soon as she registered that it was me tapping on the glass, that coldness went away. She waved for us to come in. Fitz slid in the booth next to Hiruma, I slid in next to Maria while Panther pulled up a chair.

"Yoichi-" She then stopped and cleared her throat. "Hiruma, this is my big brother Jeremy. And I believe you already know Fitz and Panther."

In Japan, a girl usually wouldn't address a guy by their first name unless they were close…so did that mean my little Maria was actually _bonding _with this arrogant asshole? "I see you two are…close. Is there something you're not telling me, Maria?"

"No." She narrowed her eyes at me and blushed deeply.

I put my arm around her and looked at Hiruma. "This is my little sister. You treat her right, okay?"

Hiruma looked at her and shook his head. "Looks like I have your brother's blessing. Let's run away to Fiji and elope." He said sarcastically, making Maria laugh. The only other guy who had been able to make her laugh like that had been Habashira.

"You still have to get Fitz and Yousuke's blessings. They're almost as much as a brother to me as Jeremy, y'know." She then focused on Panther. "So, is my dad done being a racist asshole? Is he going to let you play?"

"Sadly, not yet." Panther sighed.

"I'll go beat some sense into him if I have to." Maria offered.

"Cool your jets, gingersnap." Fitz spoke up. "You don't want to bite off more than you can chew."

"Underestimating her will be your downfall." Hiruma said darkly. "She's playing the first half of the game. Watch out for number 20."

"What?" She gasped, looking around. "Really? You couldn't have picked a different jersey number?"

Number 20. That had been our father's jersey number when he played for the San Antonio Armadillos. Hiruma of course knew that… "Looks like that makes you my newest rival. We're playing teacher against student." Fitz leaned forward to study her. He had been the one who taught her everything she knew about football.

"When Apollo sees you playing, that'll really tick him off." Panther said slowly. For some strange reason, Panther really looked up to my dad. Not as a person, but as a football hero. He had been the one who never quit, but when he had to he took it pretty hard, and his emotional pain was transferred to Maria as physical pain.

"Fitzy baby, I'm going to take away all of your pride." Mari challenged, winking a cat like eye at him and taking a sip of her tea. "I'm a girl you don't want to challenge."

The fire in her eyes was something I hadn't seen in a long time. I had only seen that fire when I watched her play on T.V, and the day that she left America for good. "I don't know about that, Mia." I said, stealing a sip of her tea. "We're an unbeatable duo, y'know."

"You're saying that to the girl he broke down the Shuttle Pass to. I know your flaws and your weak points." She said with a smirk. For a split second, she looked just like Hiruma. She let out a evil snigger. "We'll see who the better QB is during the game next week." She gave me a quick kiss on the top of the head, ruffled Fitz's hair, gave Panther a wave and walked off with Hiruma, leaving us speechless.

"There's no way in hell that is Maria Apollo." Fitz said, astounded by her changes.

"No, that's Mari Tanaka." I said slowly. "I'd like to see dad try to mess with her."

"She'd murder him." Panther went wide eyed.

From there, we got up and left to go back to the hotel where we found dad lounging in a hot tub with a washcloth over his face. Fitz walked up to him and removed it. "You should see what you did to your little girl, you asshole."

"That isn't the face of a disciplined girl that you saw. That's the face of a girl who got her heart broken." Dad said as he climbed out of the hot tub and quickly dried himself off.

"Disciplined? You call that discipline? You never _disciplined _Jeremy like that."

"Fitz." I said, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him back. "Don't."

"Don't tell me you're defending him." The look in his eyes held hysteria. Maria always made him lose his mind. She was just that good.

"Fitzgerald, what is it about my Maria that makes you tick?" Dad asked, picking up a picture of her that sat on the bedside table. "Because I'd really like to know."


	13. 12: Won't Go Home Without You: Fitz

Heartshield 01

Chapter 12 - Won't Go Home Without You

Fitz

Song: Won't go home without you - Maroon 5

* * * F L A S H B A C K * * *

"_I asked her to stay, but she wouldn't listen…She left before I had a chance to say the words that would mend the things that were broken, but now it's far too late, she's gone away…"_

"I did it." She giggled over the phone. I could hear the sound of clothes being thrown into a duffel bag on the other end of the line. "I'm getting out of here. I'm going to Japan."

Those words crushed me. "Mia, you don't have to go all the way to Japan…You could stay with me and I could protect you." I couldn't imagine a life without Maria. She became the reason why I woke up in the morning with a smile on my face, the one who helped me get good enough grades to make the football team, the one who did everything and anything to help me, but I couldn't help her with her one problem.

"Fitzy, that's crazy. I have a family in Japan. A mom, a grandmother, aunts and uncles, cousins."

"Maria, I don't want you to leave. Please, just stay…"

"I'm sorry." She whispered before the line clicked dead.

"_Every night you cry yourself to sleep, thinking "why does this happen to me, why does every moment have to be so hard?", hard to believe it. It's not over tonight, just give me one more chance to make it right. We may not make it through the night, I won't go home without you." _

I used to check on her during the night only to find the light from the hallway illuminating tears. She cried her self to sleep quite often, and there was never anything I could do to stop those tears from falling. Now she was going to go to Japan where there wouldn't be things that made her as upset as things here did. She would be happier…but I didn't want to let her go.

I hopped on my bike and peddled as fast as I could to her house only to find her throwing her things in the back of Apollo's truck as he helped her. He was really going to let her go. I stopped and grabbed her arms. "Maria, please don't go. I can fix all of this for you. I…I-"

"Come off of it, Fitz." Apollo said rather sharply. "Her mother will take care of her far better than I can."

"I bet she can't take care of her better than me. She doesn't even know her! Are you really going to send her off with a woman neither of you really knows?"

"We knew her well enough for Maria to be born, didn't we?" He put his hand on Maria's shoulder. "I can't take care of her anymore."

"You mean you don't want her anymore, right?"

"So what? I'm getting out of here! I thought you of all people would be happy for me." She clenched her fists, threw the last bag in the trunk and climbed into the passenger's seat. "Come on, dad."

Part of me couldn't believe she still called him dad after all of this time.

"_The taste of her breath, I'll never get over. The noises that she made kept me awake. The weight of the things that remained unspoken built up so much that it crushed us every day…Of all of the things I felt but never really showed, perhaps the worst is that I ever let you go. I should not ever let you go."_

When she left, I felt like I'd still see her in the halls leaning up against my locker and yelling at me for the C I got on a math test, or fitfully adjusting the tie on my uniform. I wanted nothing more than to just hug her and feel her and have her back. I started to wonder if she would have stayed if I told her how I really felt. Every day I regretted never telling her I loved her, I regretted letting her drive off in that truck.

* * * E N D F L A S H B A C K * * *

And that was what it was about Maria that made me tick. I loved her. I admitted it. But now it was too late. I wanted her to go off and be happy, even if it was with someone like Hiruma. He kept her in school, he took care of her, he did all the things I never could.

"Come on Fitzgerald, you still love her, don't you?" Apollo put his hands on my shoulders and peered into my eyes. The look in his eyes matched Maria's. "Tell her."

"What's the point?" I swatted him away. "And what's it matter to you?"

"I want Maria to come back to America with us. Her mother obviously isn't taking care of her here. She's been her own mother for about a year and a half now. I want you to bring her back."

"Why, so she can be miserable with you?"

"I'm ready to take care of her now. I have gained self-control over the years…"

"She isn't a puppy, dad!" Jeremy gripped the end of the table. "She's a human being. And you only gained self control over the years because she morphed into what you wanted her to be. A heartless football playing machine."

I couldn't stand to be with the Apollo family for that moment being, so I left the room, went down the hall to my own room and pulled out the bottle of whiskey I kept hidden in my bag. I took a quick drink and felt the alcohol burn the cuts in my lips. One sip turned into many more until I could curl up in bed and fall asleep…

XxX

I woke up to the feeling of someone tenderly stroking my hair, and it kind of freaked me out. I looked up only to find Maria. My head was rested on her lap and I realized I must have gotten violently ill because she held a washcloth over my forehead like she used to when I got sick after an intense practice.

"Fitz." She sighed. I stood up and made my way to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. I looked horrible with my hair messed up and eyes bloodshot. I washed my face and brushed my teeth before returning to the bed were she sat up with her phone in her hand. "Hiruma, Chill. I'll be home soon enough, okay? I just had somewhere I needed to be. What? No. I don't think that's relevant. I'll talk to you later." She slid the phone back into her pocket and looked up at me. "What happened?" She asked, holding up the bottle of whiskey. It still had quite a bit left in it.

"Things happened." I said, taking the bottle from her and burying it back at the bottom of my bag.

"This is how it started with my dad." She warned.

"It always starts with a girl, doesn't it?" I slurred, pointing my finger at her. "Do yourself a favor, Mia. Don't fall in love."

"What?" She stood up and pulled me towards the bed. "You need to sleep this off, Fitz."

"I don't want to sleep." I said, putting my hands on either side of her face. "I'm sick of trying to sleep everything away and waking up wishing you were there."

"Seriously, what's going on?" She shoved me down onto the bed and stood in front of me. "You're not making any sense."

"Does this make enough sense?" I pulled her onto my lap. "I. love. You." I said slowly. "I want you to come back with me."

"You're drunk. I'm serious. Go to bed Fitz. I'll have Jeremy check on you in the morning." She slipped from my grasp and stood in the doorway. "Good night." And just as fast as she came, she left me once again.


	14. 13: Heat: Hiruma and Habashira

((Author's note: Sorry it took so long to update..I haven't had a free day to myself in a while.))

_**Heartshield 01**_

_**Chapter 13 - Heat**_

_**Hiruma/Habashira**_

Part I - Hiruma

She came in late, hair a mess and smelling like booze, yet I knew she hadn't been drinking. My first thought was that she visited her father, but she didn't seem distressed enough. Of course, she must have been with Fitzgerald. But what had happened? "Fucking ginger. Where were you?" I asked, trying not to sound as worried as I really was.

"At the hotel." She slipped into the kitchen, made herself a sandwich and dropped onto the couch to eat it. "And no, I do not want to talk about it." "I wasn't going to ask." I shrugged. I could piece it together. Fitzgerald got drunk, probably admitted his love to her, but he was too drunk for her to believe it so she made him go to bed and left.

"Did you see Apollo at all?"

"No." She frowned. "I'm not ready for that."

In honesty, I didn't think she was either. She'd either fall apart or lose control. She finished her sandwich and retired to her room, not bothering to say anything else in the matter.

XxX

Mari Tanaka became the closest thing I had to a guardian. Even though I legally took care of her, she took care of me right back. She cooked for me, cleaned, did laundry and refused to let me help. She always asked about my day (even though I only answered less than half of the time) and she knew if something was bothering me (even if I lied about what it was). And truthfully, after spending so much time with someone they really start to grow on you…even if they do get on your nerves. After about two weeks in my care, she had definitely grown on me.

I'd gotten used to her singing in the shower, or as she cooked and cleaned. I got used to her stumbling over books, art supplies and that damn cat (I think its name was Loki). I got used to watching her slide across the floor after she mopped, always crashing into the garbage can. I got used to our laundry being mixed and my stuff smelling just like her, her swearing when she burned herself ironing, her falling asleep on the couch (my bed) while reading.

Everything. I had gotten used to everything.

I loved living with her even after all of these years of being alone.

"Yoichi." I felt her shake me to focus as we walked to school the next morning. "What's on your mind?"

"Game plans." I lied. Honestly, I hated people calling me by my first name, but it didn't irk me when she did it for some reason. "Tanaka, do you really want to play? I just feel like I backed you into something without your consent. Usually, I wouldn't give a two flying fuck about your consent, but this is a different case than usual."

"No, not at all. I can do this." She reassured. "I want Leo to see who strong I am."

"I really don't understand you two." Someone said from behind us. Watt, Mari's brother stood there. "She calls you by your first name, but you don't call her by hers. And the fact that you would even let her call you by your first name shows you two have some kind of closeness…like…a relationship."

Damn nosey siblings. "Jay!" Mari turned beat red.

"No, it's fine." I said, seeing if I could catch the way he moved. Calculating his agility and accuracy as a wide receiver.

"Do I get an answer?" He asked.

"Yes. We do what we want. Now get." I pulled out a pistol and pointed at him and watched him run down the street. He was fast. Faster than Monta by just a little bit, but a little bit went a long way in football. "You really are from a family of idiots."

"I noticed." She sighed.

We made it to the football club room and we dropped down on one of the couches to finish the playbook for the Aliens game. I peeked over at her as she worked. She barely noticed the fact that her glasses (which she started wearing again) had slipped down her nose. She adjusted them quickly. She was slowly turning back into the Mari she used to be before Habashira came into play.

"Why did you change when you met Habashira?" I asked. For some reason, I was curious. I liked this Mari better, why did she change?

"I didn't change when I met him. I changed when I realized I wasn't getting respect from my team. All they saw was the small ginger girl who didn't make an impact at all. So I dyed my hair purple to get the attention I needed, gained a very tyrannical personality, and began blackmailing. But sadly, you can't run a football team on fear alone."

"I know." I said, fully understanding.

She looked back down at her book and ignored the rest as the teem as they barged in after morning training.

"Tanaka! I heard you were playing the Aliens game." Mamori said she handed me the team's stats. Mari looked down at her phone, suddenly shrugged and stood up.

"I have to go." She said as she hurried out.

She didn't come back to go to class. But that was probably because someone gave her a heads up. Word surfaced that a female quarterback was going to represent Japan half of the game, so Leonard Apollo came to confront the school about it. He stood on the steps of the school looking just as smug as ever.

Part II - Habashira

When I saw Apollo on Deimon's campus, I texted Mari immediately. Sure, it was strange having her on the back of my bike again as we drove to her apartment, but she wasn't ready to deal with him just yet so I'd help her until she was.

"Hiruma will move than likely cover for you, so you should chill here the rest of the day." I advised.

"Um, thanks." She murmured. She looked exactly like the Mari I met the first time in the park. I just couldn't get over how much she had changed.

"Hey, no problem." I smirked and tried to hide how much I missed her.

"Do you want to come in?" She asked shyly.

Her apartment definitely was different. It had remnants of Hiruma all around. We sat down on the couch and began to talk about everything that was new. Her playing football, my team still not being any good; living with Hiruma, living with Megu; daddy issues, mom issues; contemplated suicides; depression.

"Do you and Hiruma, like….you know." I asked.

"No!" She said quickly. "We're just roommates, that's all."

"But you like him."

"I really don't-"

"Don't lie."

"I'm not."

"I know you better than anyone."

"Then you'd know I'm not lying."

"But you are."

"I'm not!"

"Don't argue."

"But you're wrong."

"Mari!" I grabbed her shoulders. Why the fuck did she have to play dumb?

"Rui!"

"Stop arguing with me. You don't have to lie. I'm with Megu now, so maybe it's best you move on too." It hurt to say, but if that bat-shit insane demon was the one she wanted, I'd help her.

"Fine, yeah. I like him. But it takes two. Hiruma doesn't date or fall in love. The only alive thing he shows love to is Cerberus."

"But you don't see the way you look at each other. I see you together all the time, and you don't look so sad, or he doesn't look so mean."

"You're seeing things."

"No, not at all. I'll help you with your Hiruma matter some other time, right now, you need to learn how to face your father."

We sped through the city towards Deimon and found school had already ended. We entered the football clubhouse only to find Hiruma with Apollo. The devil had him pinned up against the wall with a gun in his face.

"No, Hiruma. This is my fight." Mari insisted, stepping forward.

"Fucking child beater." He hissed, dropping him to the ground.


	15. 14: Sadistic Maria: Leonard Apollo

**((P****lease please please review? I like to know if more than one person is reading this... -_-"))**

**Heartshield 01**

**Chapter 14 - Sadistic Maria**

**Leonard Apollo**

From where I lay only her legs and feet were visible as she stepped over me and pulled me up from the ground by the lapels of my jacket. "How does it feel," she began. "to be hopeless, battered and bruised?"

She barely looked like my daughter anymore with her face contorted with hate, anger and rage. I escaped her grasp easily. "Clearly, you're not strong enough."

A white blur flew in my field of vision and I could taste blood. "Shut up. I'll do the talking." She hissed. I had never seen Maria use any violence, yet she had just punched me, and probably knocked a tooth or two loose. "You're a sick person." She hit me again. She was stronger than I had remembered. "I went through your bullshit abuse for too long."

She was still only half my size and I would never be afraid of this little ginger devil. "You can't do anything. You're just a weak angsty little girl." I snorted.

"Shut up!" She punched me for the third time and I could feel the blood drip down my face from my nostrils. Her fist had connected with the bridge of my nose and I felt dizzy, but I wouldn't back down.

"I believe it's time for you to learn your place." I snatched her up by her hair and slapped her about three times before she broke lose by jamming the butt of her pistol into my stomach to knock me back.

"Fuck you." She pointed the gun at me from where I lay on the floor. I should have killed her when I had the chance.

"You're weak, not worthy of being an Apollo." I laughed, unable to believe this rebellion, but I was able to handle it. I always wanted a son, I never wanted a daughter. But by the time Christina told me she had a baby, the damage had already been done with Haruka. A little girl couldn't keep the family name alive, play football, or do anything successful. Girls and niggers just weren't worthy of my time. Not one woman (or nigger) had been born into the Apollo family for seven generations.

"You always say a girl hasn't been born into the Apollo family for hundreds of years. And just because you're the one who fucked up, I got beat." She kicked me once in the ribs. "All of your failures became my pain." She hit the nail right on the head…but I wouldn't tell her that. "You didn't make the NFL, you're a failure in the eyes of the San Antonio Armadillos." She rolled up the sleeves of her uniform to reveal a long scar from the piece of glass I had cut her with when she was about five years old. "All of your wives left you, you're a failure in the eyes of Christina Watt and Haruka Tanaka." She pulled down the high socks of her uniform to show a cigar burn that had been scarred into her since she was seven. "You bore a daughter, you're a failure in the eyes of all of the Apollo men." She unbuttoned the first four bottom buttons of her uniform. There was a scar on her stomach from where I had held her down and sliced her with a razor when she was eight. "You neglected your duties as a father, you're a failure in the eyes of Jeremy Watt and Mari Tanaka. You beat your daughter, you're a failure in the eyes of everyone. Your daughter retaliated and beat you, you're a failure in the eyes of yourself." She pulled me up from the ground and jammed the gun into my stomach again. She laughed. She wasn't that different from me. She was quite a sadist.

I knocked the gun from her hands and slammed her hard into the wall, my fingers dug into her flesh. "You'll never amount to everything. Why don't you do your little friend Hiruma a favor and stop holding him back? Go back to your trash boyfriend. Trash belongs with trash, you know. You'll never do anything with your life than get knocked up, maybe become a prostitute and just get beat up by someone else who doesn't love you all over again. "

At the same time, both boys jumped forward armed and ready. Habashira pointed his butterfly knife and me and Hiruma had a gun.

"Ha." Maria stepped back. "I am trash. Just look at the piece of trash who fucked my mom." She turned to leave the room. "Keep it real, Leo. I just realized you're not worth my time." She giggled. "You're the one who is weak. You're the one who will never amount to anything. Look at me, I'm the princess of football, and you're just a high school football coach of a team that is about to be dominated at their own sport."

At that moment I realized Maria had broken free from the reign of terror I held over her, and I realized she had become a force beyond my control.


	16. 15: Surprises: Mari

Heartshield 01

Chapter 15 - Surprises

Mari

((Author's note: Originally, I was thinking about doing 20 chapters, but I think I'll stop at fifteen. You best believe a sequel is coming up. Maybe we'll find out why Yosuke went missing in the last chapters O.o. (This was honestly unintentional). So, look out for the sequel my darlings**! Heartshield 02**_**.**_ I should start it some time in the next three weeks maybe? :D. Also, I am very sorry I skipped like, the whole game against America but I figured y'all know what happen anyway, so why just re-live it when you can go to CrunchyRoll and watch it yourselves? Anyhoo. Lets get this damn ball rolling, shall we?))

((Heartshield 02 has been released!))

It didn't matter how good of a quarterback I was. Fitz and Jay were better than me. When we lost Sena, all hope died. They beat us by one fucking point. ONE POINT. I couldn't believe it. So, I did something I hadn't done in front of Leo, Fitz, Jay, or the rest of the Aliens in a long time. I dropped my helmet onto the ground, put my head in my hands and I cried. I felt the tears slipping into my gloves as my shoulders heaved with every large sob that erupted from my being. I felt a strong hand drop onto my shoulder. "Mia…" Fitz sighed.

"You don't understand how fucking hard we tried." I choked on a sob.

"I think we do." Panther spoke up.

"I don't think I've ever been so proud of you, Mia." Jay added, pulling me into a bear hug.

"You know what'll make you smile?" Big G (Big Brother Gonzales) ruffled my hair. "I'm permanently going to be known as Big Shit for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, and I'm little Piss!" Little G added.

Fitz wiped the tears from my face. "You were so amazing, Mia. Trust me. I'm sure your team is proud."

"I'm sure your dad is proud too." Panther added, looking over his shoulder at Leo who stood there staring hard at me.

I don't know what possessed me from walking over to him, but I did it anyway. He gently rested his hand on my head. "Things will never be okay between us, Maria." He said. "I know this. I don't expect you to ever call me dad either."

I held out my hand. "Truce?" I asked.

He shook it. "Truce." He said. He then got a constipated look on his face before squeezing out a "I'm proud of you."

Leo would probably never be called dad again, he probably wouldn't even be considered my father after all of the bad chemistry and blood that had come between us, but at least we wouldn't be on bad terms anymore.

I then turned my attention to my team who had also taken the loss rather hard. Yoichi walked towards me looking entirely pissed, but he didn't yell like I had anticipated. "Today must have been pretty hard on you." He said. "Bet you're happy for summer." An evil smile spread on his face. "Because we're going to Houston, fucking ginger." He held up a passport with a picture of me that had been taken most likely without my consent. "We're going to Houston, and the NASA Aliens are never allowed to return to America ever again." He let out one of his breathy snickers.

"I don't know whether to be happy right now, or hate you entirely." I frowned.

He ruffled my hair and let out a signature "YA-HA!" before we headed back home.

As we both lay flat on our backs on the living room floor with our hair still wet from showering and our clothes clinging to our bodies, losing just didn't seem so bad. I propped myself up on my shoulder to look at him. His hair was rather long when it was down and damp.

"This has been the craziest two months of my life." I said, looking at him.

"Then you're in for a real surprise when you see what other tricks I have up my sleeves, fucking ginger." He smirked and also propped himself up on his elbow.

"Ditto to you too, Yoichi." I stood up unsteadily onto my feet and pulled my shorts down a little more before they rode up too high. I went to step over him to go get something to drink but he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down.

"You always call my by that stupid fucking name." He pointed out.

"Does it annoy you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kind of."

"Sorry…Yoichi." I said, annunciating every syllable in his name.

"Maria." He said, annunciating the syllables in my name as well. I lightly kicked him in the side and he tripped me. I grabbed his pillow off of the couch and smacked him with it. He retaliated by pinching my in the thigh.

"Ouch!" I squeaked. "You fight like a girl." I sat on his stomach and held the pillow over his face.

Acting like this with Yoichi was one of the things that made my life seem a little brighter. As our daily wrestling match on the living room floor played out, I vowed to myself to try to be a happier person, because everything just seemed to go along easier when I was happy like this. I don't know what it was, but something about being around him made me want to act like a little kid again. Yoichi had become more that my roommate. He had become my best friend and almost like a brother. He was there to carry my drunk ass to bed and to laugh with when Fitz wasn't around, and he listened to my problems and protected me when Jay wasn't around. I had all that I had back in America with me right here, right now. I maybe even loved him, but I wouldn't tell him that, because hell, it's Yoichi. He doesn't know what love is. It was better off being friends.

But either way, I liked it like that.

**_LE FIN!_**

Yeah, shitty ending I know, but I promise the sequel will be better!


End file.
